Springfield native talks about putting hometown in Marvel movie, working in effects

James Ledwell worked as a visual effects coordinator for "Iron Man 3," which was released in 2013.(Photo: AP)

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article had the wrong year for when "The Avengers" was released. The date has now been fixed.

If you've gone to see a movie or watched a TV show, you are familiar with the credits. For some, it's a signal that they can leap from their seat and take a much-needed bathroom break. For others, they narrow their eyes to spot familiar names and titles.

Among several movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," "Dune," episodes on "CSI" and "CSI: Miami," as well as a host of other films, one Springfield native has been among those credits.

James Ledwell is now in charge of staffing film teams, helping hire artists, dealing with budgets and overseeing data collection, but he started off in the industry by painting floors green, he said.

Ledwell lived in Rogersville before moving to Springfield. He does consider himself a bit of a nerd and has always loved science fiction, which includes "Star Wars." After graduating high school, Ledwell said he attended Ozarks Technical Community College and studied studio television.

"It was more like learning how to set up a newsroom," he said.

He worked on a public access show called "Bid-N-Time" and a movie theater for a bit before realizing he needed to make a big move west, Ledwell said.

"I was never a ‘big fish in a little pond’ by any means in Springfield, but you’re the same sized fish in a much bigger pond," Ledwell said. "There’s so many people. So much going on. It’s easy to get lost."

Ledwell moved to Los Angeles in 2006. For his first job, he painted the floors green for a company on stage in North Hollywood for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigations."

"I made a lot of connections that way," Ledwell said.

Ledwell, along with seven other guys, split rent in a four-bedroom home.

"I had an immediate community that way, which was great," Ledwell said. "Half of those guys were doing extra work, they would be in the background of ‘Scrubs’ and all these other shows and they knew where things were shooting and how to get around and all that other stuff. I was able to get advice from them and support."

James Ledwell attends an Oscars event.(Photo: SUBMITTED PHOTO)

Working for Marvel

Ledwell went on to join the Marvel organization and spent about six years there.

"That was a pretty big chunk of my career," he said.

For his first Marvel film, Ledwell was a stereo coordinator —which deals with the conversion from 2-D to 3-D — for "The Avengers," which was released in 2012.

"You get in there and you hope you live up to their standards," Ledwell said.

Ledwell was later moved to solely visual effects.

"Special effects is all the way from pre-production all the way through post until the last shot has been totally corrected and it gets sent out to the masses," Ledwell said.

The first movie he coordinated was "Iron Man 3," which came out in 2013.

"If you watch it, I actually snuck Springfield in there," Ledwell said. "There’s a part where (Tony Stark's) going through places that had been attacked — there’s like bomb signatures — and one of them that he stops on is Springfield, Missouri."

Ledwell himself is also pictured in the film. He said a photo of a soldier was needed, and he was the only one available to wear a costume.

"It was like a military outfit and they took the photos, I squinted to try to look mean and they used some of those photos in the graphics," Ledwell said.

"Godzilla: King of the Monsters" is set to premiere Friday, May 31,and Ledwell was the visual effects production manager for the film.

"Until it comes out, I can’t speak too much," he said. "I did work on visual effects for it. That was my first movie as a production manager."

Due to nondisclosure agreements, Ledwell can't say much regarding his latest film "Dune," which will be released in 2020 and for which he is the visual effects production manager. However, he did talk about his favorite part of working in his chosen field.

"I get to meet a lot of amazing people, not just the actors. It’s fun meeting with them and mingling at parties," Ledwell said. "Most of them are very normal people — very kind, approachable, intelligent people."

His least favorite part? Dealing with L.A. traffic.

"The act of getting to and from work is the worst part usually. From there, you can have fun," Ledwell said.

James Ledwell worked as the visual effects production manager for "Godzilla: King of the Monsters."(Photo: Deseret News)

Ledwell also doesn't care for mornings and is a huge coffee drinker, he said.

"That’s another thing in the film industry, it’s nonstop coffee," Ledwell said. "You work a lot of hours. I think every day this week we’ve worked 12 hours. We were on location a month ago and we had to shoot a lot of sunrises and sunsets. It was an hour to get out there and an hour to get back. You wake up at 3-4 in the morning, hop in a car and drive out to the middle of nowhere to do these things. You hope that the craft service people have the coffee set up by the time we get out there."

Ledwell still returns home when he can

Ledwell and his family still visit the Springfield area.

"If I’m not working or overseas or in another state, I try to get back for holidays," he said.

One of his favorite places to go is Big Fat Burritos.

"There’s a lot of good Mexican food in Southern California, but for some reason, it’s just amazing," Ledwell said.

Andy's is another must-have, Ledwell said.

James Ledwell with his wife, Hannah, and their children, Lily and Chester.(Photo: SUBMITTED PHOTO)

Ledwell said he hopes people take time to look over the film credits when a movie or TV episode wraps up, but he understands that it can be a bit daunting.

"It would be fun if people could wrap their head around how many people actually work on these things and just how massive they are," Ledwell said. "That wall of names is a lot of people giving up a portion of their lives to work on these. It’s a force of will by all of these people to make something good."

Ledwell’s other film work includes visual effects coordinator for “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Fight Night;” visual effects assistant coordinator for “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked;” database coordinator for “Priest,” visual effects production assistant for “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” and more.